“Thé Tjong-Khing’s ability to narrate complex plot through images alone is unique.”
Cake for Everyone
Time for cake! But the eagle swipes up the blanket and flies away. The animals chase after to find all their stolen picnic things.
Thé Tjong-Khing’s visual storytelling slows us down and invites us to look more closely. Can you remember everything on the blanket? Hat, ball, doll, feather, cake? Who is hiding in the bush? What has the dog seen on the cliff? How will pig get back her sun umbrella? Why is the rabbit crying? And how can there be cake for everyone when the very hungry rat family has eaten it already?
Collect all the missing objects, find out who they belong to, and come back home for more cake in this cheerful, wordless look-and-find story that culminates in the delightful reward of sharing.
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Book Details
Country of Origin Belgium Reader Age 2-5 year, 5-7 year Book Size ISBN
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Reviews
Available worldwide from your local bookstore or online.
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Just Imagine –
Cake for Everyone is a wordless picture book encouraging children to look and find, recall and imagine, retell and discuss. A captivating book with many uses in the classroom.
It’s time for a picnic and a group of animal friends have headed off into the countryside armed with possessions, food, drink and other essentials. Just as they settle down to enjoy the fun an eagle swoops down and carries everything away. With the animals in hot pursuit, an attack by another bird results in all the picnic items scattering to the ground. Over the ensuing pages the reader accompanies the animals as they try to retrieve their missing things.
There is a lot going on in each double spread and initially it is tempting to explore the busy nature of the intricate illustrations and enjoy the comic moments. However this book offers scope for so much more. Each animal has its own personality, storyline and style and the narrative works well if the reader selects one animal and follows its journey until it is reunited with its missing belongings. It is fun trying to work out which item belongs to which creature and a good test of memory to try to recall the beginning of the story. The lovely endpapers incorporate a gallery of the different animals each clutching or wearing the object they lose which helps as a reference when memory fails. An adult could prompt the child with questions such as, Can you remember everything on the blanket?, What has the dog seen on the cliff? and Who is hiding in the bush? There are mini quests to follow on every page, characters to observe and an ending that conveys the importance of sharing.
Each time I look at this book I discover more and have no doubt that others will find the same. The timeless illustrations have a charm that encourages readers to linger adding to the understanding as they do so. There is a great deal of humour in this wordless story but also some interesting observations on character, choices and behaviour.
Due to the range of opportunity for discussion and book talk Cake for Everyone would be a valuable book for use in schools for a wide age range. Younger children will no doubt enjoy getting to know the personalities of the animals and older ones will enjoy the challenge of predicting outcomes. Teachers could also use this as a writing prompt encouraging children to narrate their own version of one of the many individual stories contained within the book, or indeed an overview of the whole adventure. This would definitely be a valuable addition to both primary school classrooms and libraries.
This review was written by Anne Thompson
Little C –
A delightful and wordless picture book by Thé Tjong-Khing is full of expressive and captivating illustrations!
We are introduced to a group of animals that look like they are off out on an adventure with a picnic in hand and we can’t miss that yummy cake, which becomes a focal point of the story.
Each animal has their own style, personality and items which are revealed throughout an unexpected event which requires teamwork.
Themes of sharing, community, and the joy of simple pleasures is highlighted throughout the pages alongside the group of animal friends getting together at the end and celebrating with CAKE!
Every-time we take this book out we identify something new throughout the layout making it an exciting and imaginative story for all.
YLG News –
A wordless look-and-find adventure picture book full of intricate detail and comical storytelling, in which a group of animals chase their stolen picnic—and find some hungry friends to share the cake.
My Shelves Are Full –
This wordless story will capture imaginations as you delve into the stories of each animal, item lost and end gathering. Beginning with a group of friends and a picnic. A large bird steals the loved items but they are soon dropped and scatter. As you read, you begin to piece together which item belongs to which animals, why they are all together and their stories. The biggest question is where does all the cake come from, as there is certainly more at the end, and enough for everyone as the title suggests. A bit like a search and find book, this goes a step further and has you invest in the characters and their back stories. What will you discover?
Publishers Weekly –
Pleasingly fragmented and comically cohesive, spreads rendered in fine lines follow the antics, making for a set of brain-teasing mini-quests that invite readers to consider who arrived first, what belonged to whom, and how they’ll all arrive at the titular conceit.”
Words without Borders –
This captivating wordless picture book is a welcome reminder of how redundant text can be when the illustrations say it all. There’s so much going on here, but it’s left to the readers to construct our own story and frenetic dialogue.